Hi guys, so today I’m going to share some Valentine’s Day gift ideas with you. These gift ideas come from some of my favorite presents that Daniel and I have given to each other throughout the years, and most of them will work for either a girl or a guy!

If you’ve been to my blog before, you know that I’ve mentioned that puzzles have long been a theme in our relationship. So I’m sure you can imagine that this has influenced a lot of the gifts we’ve given each other!

One year I had the idea to get Daniel a puzzle piece necklace. I personally think jewelry for a guy is an unexpected gift, which is the kind of gift I strive for. Unique, personal, and meaningful is my mantra when searching for a gift (especially for Daniel).

After searching and searching, I finally turned my attention to Etsy and found the perfect puzzle piece necklace. This necklace was by far the most masculine looking one I found. The seller was super nice, and the necklace came quickly and looked just as pictured. Daniel loved it, and I love it whenever he wears it! It also gave Daniel the idea to have a friend of his make me a matching puzzle necklace in silver!

Staying with the puzzle theme, Daniel gave me this amazingly romantic and sentimental gift (originally for our 1st year anniversary)! Yes, that’s right, he made a puzzle for me. I was so surprised and in love with this gift, not only when I first got it but every time we put it together.

Another gift that keeps on giving is… a fondue pot! Daniel also got me this during our first year together. It was particularly sentimental to us because of an amazing fondue dinner during our first trip together, but this would make a fabulous gift for anyone.

He was also very clever and made it a two-in-one gift by including the ingredients for chocolate fondue! We exchanged gifts after dinner and were able to try out the fondue pot that night! Yes, I know, I’m an incredibly lucky girl.

Since then, we’ve elevated countless stay at home date nights and celebrated special occasions with a fondue dinner (as you can see below). It’s amazing how it can invoke so many wonderful memories every time we use it!

I don’t know about you, but we have numerous songs that have become very meaningful to our relationship and signified different stages of it. For that reason, another gift I love giving are records. This originally stemmed from Daniel having a beautiful record player, but no records! Also, I’m not sure why, but I’ve always found vinyl to be more romantic than a CD.

Of course, if your significant other doesn’t have a record player, Valentine’s Day would be a great excuse to get one! I personally think this would be an awesome gift for a guy, and a more unique and unexpected gift as well!

Talk about a sweet gift! Would you not melt after unwrapping this? We’ve used it SO many times during the summer months, and it makes me smile every single time.

And last but certainly not least, Daniel started making awesome paintings last year, and he made this WALL-E and Eva pair for me for Valentine’s Day!

As you can see, I was pretty happy! You can visit his Etsy page to get these adorable paintings for your significant other. I’m sure any Pixar-loving girl (such as myself) would LOVE to have these hanging on her wall!

There you have it, a few unique and meaningful Valentine’s Day gift ideas for your guy or girl!

Hey guys, so I know I’ve blogged about the Places We’ve Been DIY before, but I wanted to bring it up to the front for any newcomers or anyone that may have missed it the first time around. I originally made this as an anniversary gift for Daniel, but it would make an amazing DIY Valentine’s Day Gift for your significant other! Very romantic and meaningful, and chock full of memories! Not to mention it’s also quick, easy, and inexpensive!

Obviously this project is all about the maps, so the first thing I did was figure out how I wanted them to look. I did this DIY right before moving to Portland, so I was working on limited time and a small budget. Because of that, I personally chose to use Google Maps and print them out at home. Easy peasy! It was also a great choice for me because I wanted to control what would be seen within the heart, so zooming was key. You could also use an Atlas, Thomas Guide, or look for old maps at a thrift store if you want more variety.

Because we were about to move from Los Angeles to a new home in Portland, I chose to include a map of the neighborhood we dearly loved but had to leave behind. You can use any heart stencil you’d like – as for me, I didn’t have one (remember that whole uncrafty crafter thing?). So I just searched for an image of a heart I liked and printed it out on cardstock, thus making my own stencil! That’s a little crafty, right?

I stenciled and cut out each heart, and before I knew it, I had 12 perfect little sentimental maps laid out before me. This is the moment when I got really excited because I knew the project was going to turn out just as I had imagined it! Which is always a little shocking to me. Here are some measurements for your reference: the widest part of the heart measured in at 2 1/2″, and from the top point to the bottom point it measured out to 2 3/4″. This size worked perfectly for me based on 12 hearts and a 12×12 frame. You’ll want to adjust the sizes depending on how many hearts you’re planning on using.

Next, I pasted each heart on a piece of matboard with Mod Podge and then cut out each heart again. The reason I did this is because I wanted the hearts to have a 3D effect. I used a pair of scissors to do this, and even though they were REALLY dull, it was still fairly easy to cut through the matboard. With sharp scissors it should be a breeze, but use whatever cutting tool works best for you!

I tried to get fancy and penciled in a mathematical grid onto the matboard to try and ensure all the hearts would line up perfectly. It mostly worked. The grid was totally wrong, but it still helped me eyeball them into the right placement!

I pasted each heart onto a 12×12 piece of matboard using Mod Podge (you will most likely have to cut your matboard down to size), and weighed it down with heavy books for about 48 hours to make sure the edges wouldn’t curl up. As for placement, I arranged the maps mainly by how they looked, not by chronological order. I didn’t want two mostly blue hearts next to each other, same with the green. I also wanted to make sure our neighborhood heart was kind of in the middle, and because a lot of the places we visited were in California and on the East Coast, I tried to vary those from each other as well.

After that, all that was left was putting the finished project in a frame! I really liked the idea of a white picture frame, since almost all the frames in our house are black. Apparently white frames aren’t very popular though. I searched for a LONG time to find the perfect white 12×12 frame, and still didn’t have that many options. In the end, I decided to go with this frame, and I am more than pleased with it. It’s not the highest quality frame I’ve ever seen, but it doesn’t look cheap and feels very sturdy.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of my DIY and the original product I was inspired by. What do you think? I really loved how it turned out. The original is over $500, and in total mine only cost me about $20. Much easier on my wallet!

Bonus: The Gift Wrap!

I love to make gift wrap just as meaningful as the gift itself, and I thought I’d share what I did in case anyone is looking for some wrapping inspiration.

All I did was take brown packing paper (which came from an Amazon shipment), and with a black Sharpie wrote the lyrics from our song in cursive (in case you’re wondering, our song is “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” by Elvis Presley). Simple as that!

There you have it! I hope this tutorial gave you all inspiration to make your own DIY Valentine’s Day gift!

The very first Valentine’s Day Daniel and I celebrated together I made him cupcakes as one of his presents. Not just any cupcakes though… Daniel has a love affair with spicy foods, and when I was looking for sweets to make, I was specifically looking for HOT recipes.

In my search I came across this recipe for Chocolate Chipotle Cupcakes, and I thought, “This is perfect!” It’s got spicy, it’s got chocolate (who doesn’t love chocolate?), and it’s definitely more unique than other cupcake flavors I could of made. I was sold and decided to make the recipe, and I was super impressed with how delicious they turned out!

Now I’d like to share the recipe with my changes and suggestions with you!

Here’s what you need:

1 box of chocolate cake mix

Any ingredients the cake mix calls for (usually water, oil, and eggs)

2 TBSP pureed chipotle peppers in adobo

1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon

1/4-1 tsp of cayenne pepper (depending on heat preference)

Here’s what you do:

At first glance, what I loved about this recipe was how simple and quick it was. It would be really great for anyone running short on time, or for a novice baker!

Next, in a large bowl mix all of your ingredients until blended. In a prepared cupcake pan, fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full. Then bake in preheated oven for 15-18 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack and you’re done!

This recipe made 20 cupcakes for me. Now, the cayenne pepper is my suggestion if you actually want these cupcakes to have a kick. While the chipotle peppers give a delicious flavor, it really didn’t give off any heat to us. While you may be thinking, well, why don’t I just add more chipotle… that’s what I thought too.

The second time I made these cupcakes that’s exactly what I did, I doubled the amount of pureed chipotle pepper, and it was WEIRD. I’m not sure if it had to do with something in the adobo sauce, but it completely changed the texture of the cake and made it way too salty. I would definitely recommend learning from my mistake!

The original recipe suggests sprinkling the cupcakes with powdered sugar and cinnamon, but a cupcake isn’t a cupcake to me without icing. I wanted these cupcakes to take decadent, so I knew I wanted to use a buttercream frosting.

In a medium bowl, combine butter, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Beat until blended.

Add the milk and vanilla, and beat until smooth and creamy.

This frosting is amazing! I added in cinnamon because I wanted to play up that flavor in the cupcakes, and I was not disappointed. One heads up though, the recipe states that the serving size is 12 cupcakes… well, I frosted 20 and had tons left over. The second time I made them I even used some to pipe extra decorations, but still had maybe 3/4 of a cup leftover. Maybe I don’t add as much frosting as other people though, this buttercream is also very sweet so you don’t need a whole lot either. While it’s better to have more frosting than too little, you might want to adjust the measurements depending on how much you need.

As for decorations, I kept it pretty simple, and rimmed the sides with chocolate sprinkles and chili powder.

I remember Daniel absolutely loved them, and I know it made our first Valentine’s Day very memorable. They also freeze really well too! Since Daniel had a whole box of cupcakes to himself, this Valentine’s Day gift lasted for the next few months! What a sweet reminder for your man (of their girlfriend or wife that made them)!

Valentine’s Day is almost here, and I know a lot of you out there are probably searching for gifts for your boyfriend/husband or girlfriend/wife. I always say this, but I think homemade gifts are such a wonderful way to express your love for someone. So much thought, energy, and love goes into the gift that that’s almost a gift on its own!

I had come across the 52 Reasons Why I Love You DIY a while ago, and knew I wanted to make it at some point for a special occasion. After pinning it, I was a little intimidated by the DIY… I’m what I like to call an “uncrafty crafter.” This project looked slightly beyond my capabilities, so I passed on it more than a few times.

Finally, last year for Valentine’s Day I decided to take on the challenge and make it for Daniel. This DIY is all over Pinterest and everyone has their own take on it. After looking at a bunch of examples, I knew how I was going personalize it for Daniel and myself. And now I’d like to share it with you all, so here’s my DIY of the 52 Reasons Why I Love You gift! Read more »

After visiting Peacock Lane in Portland, we found another fun Christmas lights attraction… Zoo Lights at the Oregon Zoo!

We had been to the Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago a few years back. It was so magical to see, and a great opportunity to see nocturnal animals awake and active! I was super excited to learn we had another opportunity to see Zoo Lights, and in our own city no less!

As with Peacock Lane, we went to see the Zoo Lights after Christmas, so despite going on a Sunday it was fairly easy to find parking.

If you plan to go in 2014 and it’s before the holiday has passed, public transportation may be your best friend in getting there. I’d imagine the parking lot would be somewhat of a nightmare. You also get a discount on your tickets if you take the MAX!

It was still pretty crowded inside for us though, so it was a little hard to get decent pictures. Here are a few that I managed to get!

While it was nowhere near as cold as it was in Chicago during the winter, we still found it to be uncomfortably chilly. I would highly recommend bundling up when you go!

Luckily, anywhere you turn there is hot chocolate and other hot beverages being sold throughout the zoo. Unluckily, there are impossibly long lines at each and every one of them! I think next time we’ll bring a couple of thermoses with us and avoid the crowds!

Even though we went after Christmas, the zoo itself was very congested, which we were a little surprised at. I can only imagine if you go before Christmas that it would be a lot worse. I’d personally try to go during the week, since I’m sure the weekends are crazy. Despite the crowds, we still had a great time seeing all the beautiful lights – here are a few more pictures!

Other than traditional Christmas lights, they also had an impressive array of displays that incorporated movement (not that you can tell from pictures).

This African river scene was particularly impressive, as just about everything moved.

There were also a lot of displays with classic movie characters as well!

My absolute favorite place at the zoo was The Kaleidoscope, which was basically a big tunnel of lights. Check it out!

It was pretty congested at the entrance of the tunnel, because obviously it’s a great photo opportunity. I don’t think people realized how big it was though, because if you just walked a few steps through, there was way more room to take pictures. I’d recommended squeezing through the crowds as quickly as you can, to get to the middle of the tunnel. Then you can take your time and take as many photos as you want, without people constantly walking in your shot!

While the lights are the main attraction, another advantage of being at the zoo at night is seeing the nocturnal animals. Two highlights for us were seeing the tigers up and about, and being able to spend time at the bat exhibit.

If you go during dinnertime, you can bring your own food in, but I would highly recommend eating at the Cascade Grill if you can. The food is delicious and healthy, and they use a lot of local ingredients. They also serve local beer and wine!

We had a great time at the Zoo Lights, and I can’t wait to go again! I hope I’ve piqued your interest as well, but even if you can’t make it during the holiday season, the Oregon Zoo is a wonderful place to visit. So if you’re planning a trip or in the area, definitely add it to your activity list while staying in Portland!

HI!

My name’s Michele, and lil bit is a blog about, well, a ‘lil bit’ of everything! I love food and to travel, I recently moved to Portland and am exploring the city, I am a self-proclaimed “uncrafty crafter” trying to become a better DIY-er, but most of all -- I am a 20-something girl trying to find the right path, my path, in this crazy but amazing world.